Hospital characteristics, including size, non-profit status and affiliation with a university, appear to be associated with use of do-not-resuscitate orders (DNR) in California, independent of the patient's characteristics, according to a study in the
The American Medical Association, (AMA), says that access to care for Florida's nearly 3 million Medicare patients will be in jeopardy if Congress does not act to halt a cut in payments to physicians
The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) have announced that six Pennsylvania hospitals will
One of Britain's most senior doctors says that the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK is unsustainable and needs to be reformed.Bernie Ribeiro, the new president of the
Early diagnosis and new treatments can help battle heart failure -- a growing national problem that causes 1 million hospital admissions each year, according to new guidelines released by the American College
Building up and strengthening health systems is vital if more progress is to be made towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the
District nurses in the UK, working in the community, have been banned from wearing their uniforms when they are not on duty, amid growing concerns about superbugs. At present the new ruling only applies to nurses in Sunderland who go out to vis
According to doctors in the UK, thousands of healthy people, encouraged by celebrity endorsements, are having expensive private medical tests done which they do not need and may even be doing them harm.Charles George,
A simple information and communication intervention between a patient and physician can increase hospice referral rates among nursing home residents, increase their families' ratings of end-of-life care, and may decrease use of acute care resources, ac
A report by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council has revealed that more than 11,000 people contacted some form of infection in Pennsylvania hospitals last year, and nearly 1,800 died fro
With unique strengths in studying organizations, institutions, and the political economy, sociological researchers offer useful insights for researchers of well-being and for health care policymakers through objective and comprehensive overview as well as focused research articles. Made possible by sponsorship from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this special issue of JHSB?titled "Health and Health Care in the United States: Origins and Dynamics"?examines the efficacy of U.S. health care in the world context.
While the United States is one of the richest and most politically powerful nations in the world, its health care system exhibits numerous sociological, political, and economic dilemmas. Embedded in private market competition, the U.S. health care system has become one of the most inequitable, inefficient, and costly systems among those of western industrialized nations. At the same time, the United States delivers some of the finest health care in the world, and yet with more than 16 percent of Americans uninsured, mostly children, many do not have access to or cannot afford this health care.
The JHSB articles shed historical and contemporary light on some of the reasons behind this inequality and explore the function of the health care system by examining the "origins of corporate health care," "the dynamics of health care markets," and "systemic implications of corporatized health care." The journal features analyses over several decades of the development of current institutional arrangements of health care delivery and health care organizations, details about their weaknesses, and the requirements for improving services to acceptable standards.
Among other timely topics, the articles explore the history of U.S. universal health care policy proposals, problems in long-term care, comparisons between managed care chains versus hospital chains, and clinical practice guidelines after a public backlash against managed care. The researchers detail the ways in which organizational, cultural, and professional forces shape the health and medical markets, even as corporate interests transform health care and the health professions.
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